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Have any of you guys ever sampled a sound or loop from someone else's music?


LANSTARR

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I'm just starting to experiment more with sampling... i always kind of turned my nose up at it, but i've been craving that particular sound you can get by sampling drum beats from records and re-arranging the sliced hits. Myself I'm not into sampling whole loops or melody lines 'as-is'.

 

But I see nothing wrong with sampling whole loops if they are re-contextualized or harmonized in a creative way. The key is 'creative'.

 

And yes this is a big part of hip-hop. No need to duck..?

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Originally posted by LANSTARR

Or is this beneath you?

 

While I don't utilise loops that much these days, I'm very much of the "if it works, then why not?" way of thinking.

 

A lot of my loops come from very odd sources though, and I tend to try and mess them up a little...

 

a trick I learnt early on was to take say a drum loop or bass line REX it up then play the data of another REX loop on it... sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't but its a simple way to give new life to old loops...

 

My sources are generally old 1970s psych/electronic/jazz/funk/library/prog records but usually ones that nobody has ever heard (often for good reason.. they are crap!)... in fact I rarely like the original records from which they came from... usually its just 2-3 seconds of a great break in the middle of some terrible trashy crap..

 

Of course, I like many people here also have the skills to play music live and do a lot of that too.. but theres something nice about a sample and pitching it up and down, reversing stuff, EQing, compressing the f**k out of loops....

 

I love pitched rhodes chords on min 9ths for example... has a lovely vibe that can't really be had on a real rhodes...

 

Really, there shouldn't be any limits to what people want to utilise. Some people see it as a bit of a crutch, but I never see it like that... if something sounds good it is good. :D

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All the time. Kontakt 2 and Peak are my friends.

 

Sampling is an art-form unto itself and another way to kill creative block.

 

Something else I learned while in England. They aren't as uptight about using bits of material, hell, I'm cutting up "True" by Spandau Ballet right now.

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I like to sample stuff...Ill generally change it until its unrecognizable from its original state, but if someone wants to use a sample of a cool melody from an old record or something, thats cool. I think they should give credit where its due if they use it verbatim on a published work though,with little or no changes done to the source material.

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in a just and fair world, artists and lawyers would understand that the terminus of the work is the vernacular - indeed, the cliche. marketing types and record execs understand that the success of whatever "product" they're pushing can be measured by its metonymity - they just want, disingenuously, to be the arbiters of its use. so, sometimes, it's hard to give credit where it's due, or to be artistically transparent - you'll get cease and desist letters or be forced to destroy your work in public, in the worst case scenario {just ask john oswald, or negativland}.

 

seriously, i can't believe they had to take superman off that {censored}ing sufjan stevens album cover.

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Originally posted by syncretism

in a just and fair world, artists and lawyers would understand that the terminus of the work is the vernacular - indeed, the cliche. marketing types and record execs understand that the success of whatever "product" they're pushing can be measured by its metonymity - they just want, disingenuously, to be the arbiters of its use. so, sometimes, it's hard to give credit where it's due, or to be artistically transparent - you'll get cease and desist letters or be forced to destroy your work in public, in the worst case scenario {just ask john oswald, or negativland}.


seriously, i can't believe they had to take superman off that {censored}ing sufjan stevens album cover.

 

"terminus"

 

"vernacular"

 

"metonymity"

 

"arbiters"

 

"{censored}ing"

 

"One of these words is not like the other.... " :D

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Originally posted by syncretism




why are you ducking?

 

a lot of people tend to puff up when hip hop is insulted.

 

with that being said, hip hop {censored}ing sucks. Crap excuse for music...

 

*ducks again*

 

Originally posted by orangefunk




"One of these words is not like the other.... "
:D

 

I bet one of those words just doesnt belong.

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i've actually never seriously sampled from an existing song before in anything i've done that i've thought of as 'my own'. i know i've got some stuff on some old cassettes from when i got my first sampler, an SP-202 upon release (always hated that thing). even those don't really use full bars/riffs/beats from tracks usually. i do enjoy toying with the 'Amen, Brother' break every once in a while though, just for fun.

 

on the other hand, i myself really respect older hip-hop/sample based music. i think it's a bit of an art in itself, for example i think the Beastie Boys' 'Paul's Boutique' is somewhat of a timeless masterpiece. i really enjoy this type of 'sound collage' approach and think that sometimes two or more seperate pieces of music can form a better whole. how is that not creative, if only some sort of a 'found' art? i think the hip-hop boom of the 80s was could be thought of as making something new out of a bunch of old worthless junk (disguised as crates of vinyl at a flea market or thrift shop).

 

what i do think is lame is using pre-made sample loop CDs or the generic types of loops that come with Ableton Live, etc... i also felt pretty 'dirty' playing around with the factory samples on the MPC. :(

 

Originally posted by myteeGTi

...with that being said, hip hop {censored}ing sucks. Crap excuse for music...

 

that seems pretty shallow. maybe a crap excuse for lyrics/vocals/taste/image/role models/etc/etc...

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Sometimes I did - expecially now that I'm working on a strange hip hop project with a friend, that's almost compulsory, but I also like to sample strange things (for example, I sampled the start of the soprano chant in Greenaway's The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover and created a gloomy 1716 track with it). It's funny, indeed :D

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Originally posted by myteeGTi


a lot of people tend to puff up when hip hop is insulted.


with that being said, hip hop {censored}ing sucks. Crap excuse for music...

 

 

lol.. someone sounds bitter... im sure your monster of a creative force. just be happy that you arent at all likely to create anything that is remotely interesting enough for anyone to want to sample.

 

hip hop is crap? crap excuse for music?

 

explain, elaborate, expound

 

what's so "crap" about it?

 

i'd like to see what a creative man such as yourself could do with a record and an mpc... teh fact remains that sampling and hip hop in general is a uique artform that allows for much in the way of artistic expresion. your opinoin, plainly put, is worthless on the matter isnce it comes from a guy who obviously holds some preconcieved notions of an ART form.

 

if you dont like it, fine

 

the reason folks get puffed up is because guys like you like to make sweeping statements about an entire culture that, if im a betting man, you knownext to nothing about outside of whatever glimpses the media might make you privy to.

 

but im sure you are creating some fabolously artistic elevator music, or some old guy cheese rock that people are just dying to hear.

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Originally posted by Unfed


that seems pretty shallow. maybe a crap excuse for lyrics/vocals/taste/image/role models/etc/etc...

 

 

this is even more shallow, actually

 

apparantly you dont at all understand the dynamics of rapping

apparantly you dont realize the breath control required, or the ability to write line after line of material that not only rhymes but maintains a multi-syllabic structure and expounds on a topic more in depth then most rock songs you can name... yes i said most, not all... apparantly you havent read or heard a lyric by anyone not named 50 cent or eminem or tupac... i guess the creative, insightful wordplay of guys like common or mos def or rakim or andre 3000 or the poetry of aesop rock or a guy like pharoahe monch are all sad excuses for writing, even though they run creative circles around many a rockers cliched pretentiousness

 

apparantly you dont know much about any of these men outside of your pathetically limited mtv and clear channel presentation of what hip hop is about; you only see the materialism and mysogeny prevelaint in THAT element of the culture, which is no more blatant or self aggrandizing then your favortie rock band. how limited your exposure, and therefor your understanding of the WHOLE- not the one-sided side show the media loves to promote. you obviously have no clue about the wonderful parts of the culture that are neglected by the media, because these are the images that appeal to the middle class, suburban types in MASS. role models? im sure your drug addicted jazz musicians make great ones. im sure your pornographic rock idols are tremendously positive influences within their communities.. and oh yes the wonderfully maligned soul stars of yesteryear, with their cocaine addictions, cant forget them..

 

where does "taste" come into play? image? what image the ONE image you get to see on tv must explain the whole right?

 

i love how so many of you are so able to peer so effortlessly into the true soul and heart of the whole through limited exposeure to a few parts. bravo, three cheers for forward thinking

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Originally posted by cold truth



lol.. someone sounds bitter... im sure your monster of a creative force. just be happy that you arent at all likely to create anything that is remotely interesting enough for anyone to want to sample.


hip hop is crap? crap excuse for music?


explain, elaborate, expound


what's so "crap" about it?


i'd like to see what a creative man such as yourself could do with a record and an mpc... teh fact remains that sampling and hip hop in general is a uique artform that allows for much in the way of artistic expresion. your opinoin, plainly put, is worthless on the matter isnce it comes from a guy who obviously holds some preconcieved notions of an ART form.


if you dont like it, fine


the reason folks get puffed up is because guys like you like to make sweeping statements about an entire culture that, if im a betting man, you knownext to nothing about outside of whatever glimpses the media might make you privy to.


but im sure you are creating some fabolously artistic elevator music, or some old guy cheese rock that people are just dying to hear.

 

 

I dont care.

 

Rap sucks, hip hop sucks. Feel free to put away the violin and de-puff.

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